I am Astro
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: I discovered late in my life how important to me the fictional boy robot was during a portion of my childhood. This is my tribute to him.


**I am Astro**

**I **remember how traumatic it was for me to leave the safety of Elementary school to enter Junior High. In one moment I'd gone from an environment where I was one of the oldest students in the school to one where everyone would be older (and bigger) than I was. We had all heard horror stories of bullies picking on the members of the freshmen class, and indeed I would run into some of that personally. How I wished for a larger friend to protect me.

It isn't uncommon for children to have imaginary friends, especially those that find themselves in scary situations. Children have vivid imaginations, and sometimes they can convince themselves that their imagined companions are actually real. Ever since the first day I had been issued a library card for the Brooklyn Public library, I had been reading everything I could find in both the science fiction and technology sections of the library. So it shouldn't be a surprise that when the Astro Boy anime aired on channel 5 in NYC, it quickly became a favorite.

In my imagination I visualized having a robot friend like Astro to help me make it through Junior High. I read books on computers and wondered if it would be possible to build an electronic brain like his. In those days computers were still built from discrete transistors and even a small machine (such as the D.E.C PDP8 Mini computer) would be as large as several full size refrigerators. Still, that didn't stop me from dreaming. I identified with the boy robot. The Astro in the '63 series was smaller and younger than I was, but he was fearless and invulnerable. Those were the very qualities that I wished to possess. I don't know why it never occurred to me to try and appear as him (not even on Halloween). I suppose it was just a bit early for the kind of freedom for self expression that kids now have today. A few years later the Beatles would land on the scene and long hair would become the normal style for school kids. I suppose if the Astro Boy show had been aired a few years later you might have seen kids with gelled up hair spikes. In any event, Cosplay was still several years in the future (it was invented during the first Star Trek conventions). I did wear my hair long in my college days. I wish I had thought of Astro back then and had added those gelled spikes.

**Fred Ladd **had done a good job in keeping Astro's Japanese origins a secret to the audience. The stories were re-written to place the Institute of Science in the United States someplace, I imagined it 21st century NYC. Of course if you looked carefully you could see some signs written in Japanese here and there.

I had an Uncle who worked for Panasonic as a marketing engineer for the US import arm of the company. Once or twice a year he would visit the factory in Japan, and he sometimes brought back souvenirs. I remember seeing a copy of a Japanese language manga magazine with "Mighty Atom" on the cover. The title was in English, almost everything else was in Japanese. That was how I discovered that my hero was really from across the Pacific.

**Somehow** I survived both Junior and Senior High. I had finished college and had moved away from NY to start my own independent life on my own. I'd forgotten about Astro, or at least I thought I had. I was about to turn 40 when several things in the world had changed. For one, I'd met my wife to be and we had started to make our plans. For another, it was now possible for mere mortals to have access to the Internet. Al Gore had called the web, the 'information super highway'. I soon discovered that the web is also a vast storehouse of things forgotten. Sites such as Youtube and Hulu housed long forgotten clips from old TV shows. I stumbled into stuff I'd forgotten, and stuff that I'd missed out on.

I don't know if the 1980 Astro Boy anime was ever on cable in my area. I know I did have cable, and I had discovered Nickelodeon. (What networks DID carry the 1980 Astro series?). I did get hooked on a French made anime called "The mysterious cities of gold" that was broadcast on Nickelodeon. I wish I had seen Astro on cable in the '80's. I also never saw the 2003 series on TV, but I know that all of the episodes never did air live.

I remember when I saw the coming attraction for the 2009 Astro Boy movie. "In this top secret lab a top scientist is working on his greatest invention." It all came back to me in a flash. I remembered my childhood hero. I'd later search the web and I'd find the '63 series on Youtube, and both the '80 and '03 series on Hulu. I watched them over and over again. It was like a spiritual revival.

**Today** were are so close to having robots like Astro in some form. Computers powerful enough and small enough to serve as a robot's electronic brain exist. The software isn't quite there yet, but it's coming. I don't think we'll soon see 100,000 HP in a four foot high robot, but we will soon interact with them. Honda's Asimov robot is amazing, but he looks like a midget in a spacesuit. Why didn't Honda make him look like Astro?

**Now **that I'm close to retirement I sometimes find myself looking back more than forward. I'm still trying new things, and writing is one of them. Time and time again my imagination still comes up with stories about my childhood hero, and I still see myself in his world, or maybe he in mine just as I did over a half century ago. I don't know how much longer I have left to exist in this world, and I sometimes wonder how I will leave it.

**Call** me weird, but after being at the funerals of both of my parents I have begun to ponder my own. I stood by my mother as my father's casket was opened just prior to burial as we looked upon his face for the final time. My sister and I also performed the same ritual for my mother. There may be a tradition for what clothing people are buried in, but I don't think I want to wear a suit for eternity.  
>I can see myself laid out in something more comfortable, such as Jeans and a tee shirt. I think I'd like to find a nice one with Astro's image on it and wear that till the end of time. I found a metal pin with Astro's image on it in a flying pose. I want that pinned to my clothes to be with me for the hereafter. If I have enough hair left to spike it, I'd like the undertaker to style it like Astro's famous cowlicks. If my hair has thinned too much for that, find me a wig. I don't care what my mourners will think. I am Astro.<p> 


End file.
